What We're Writing

It's been a while since we caught up with Writer's Who Kill. Here's what we're working on.

 Sarah Burr: I'm currently knee-deep in caffeine and clues as I work on the next Book Blogger Mystery! It's been a joy jumping back into that bookish world filled with secrets, sass, and sleuthing. At the same time, I'm gearing up to pop the confetti for the release of #Throwback for Murder, book four in my Trending Topic Mysteries series. It's a whirlwind of witty twists and cozy chaos, and I can't wait to celebrate with all of you!

Kait Carson: I’m writing Death by Deception the fourth of the Hayden Kent Mystery series. Because I’m unwilling to leave the Keys behind, I’m also working on Pirates on Parade, a cozy mystery and the first of The Southernmost Secrets series. Wish me luck.

Debra H. Goldstein: I’ve been writing short stories. A collection of my work, With Our Bellies Full, and the Fire Dying was recently released. In addition, “Who Shot J.R.?” appeared in Sleuths Just Wanna Have Fun and Opera Dinner Club was podcast and released in print in Anything But Murder: Larceny and Lies.

Margaret S. Hamilton: I am writing a longish culinary short story and tackling another round of edits on the second book in my Jericho Mysteries series.

Lori Herbst:  I'm about halfway through book 1 in the new Seahorse Bay Mystery series, set in a Texas cruise port town. Larceny at the Lighthouse is tentatively scheduled to release this fall (fingers crossed), and it features Shelley Shore, a cruise ship director who moves back to Seahorse Bay to help her great aunts save the aquarium they own.

Cover reveal coming this summer!

James M. Jackson: I'm currently working on the Niki Undercover series, which spins off one of the characters from my Seamus McCree series. I'm polishing book 1 (Niki Undercover), beta readers are providing feedback on book 2 (Niki Unleashed), and I'm writing the first draft of book 3 (Niki Untitled -- that is I don't yet know what the second word will be for the title, other than it will begin with "Un").

Marilyn Levinson/Allison Brook: I’m writing the fourth Rufus book in my middle-grade series called Rufus and the Right Side of Magic. The third book, Rufus and the Dark Side of Magic, has just come out.

I’m also plotting the second book in my new mystery series that I write as Allison Brook. The first book, Death on Dickens Island, is being released October 21, 2025.

Martha Reed: I’m having great fun finishing up The Seven Gates of Guinee, my third Crescent City NOLA Mystery with an eye on a summer 2025 publication date. Jane Byrne my disgraced ex-detective and Gigi Pascoe my transgender sleuth are ably assisted by an authentic NOLA Voodoo queen Aunt Babette Broussard as they work to uncover what really happened to the four university students who vanished in 1977 while playing the Intrepid Quest fantasy role-playing board game. Did a French Quarter Voodoo portal really swallow them up?

K.M. Rockwood: I'm having a great time working on a Christmas short story.

 Digby is a young elf who has a job in the office of a shoe factory. He suffers from dyslexia and makes mistakes which others mock. He has a crush on Edda, but is too insecure to let her know. He overhears a conversation in which she says she is nice to him because feels sorry for him. Humiliated and desperate to avoid seeing her, he writes a letter to Santa asking about a job at the North Pole. Only he mistakenly addresses it to Satan.

 Santa arrives at the gates of hell to rescue Digby. In the confrontation with Satan, he flies into a towering rage. This may go to the submission call for Santa Rage 2, although I know it's not really what the editor is looking for. Or it may end up as my contribution to the next round of Christmas stories on Writers Who Kill, if we decide to do that this year.

Susan Van Kirk: Fabric of Lies is the latest Endurance manuscript I'm writing. The Endurance mysteries follow retired teacher, Grace Kimball, and her former student and friend, Detective TJ Sweeney. After the last mystery, The Witch's Child, this latest manuscript finds Jeff Maitlin and Grace Kimball married for the past year and running Lockwood House as a bed-and-breakfast. A terrible event from the past shows up in the form of a visitor to town who brings with him memories for Grace of a mysterious disappearance and the bittersweet years when she was married to her late husband, Roger. Meanwhile, Jeff Maitlin is still the Editor-in-Chief of the Endurance Register, but perhaps not for long. Forces he hardly knows are conspiring to bring about the demise of his beloved local newspaper. 

Heather Weidner: Spring has sprung here in Central Virginia, and I’m hiding from the pollen in my writing cave. I just finished a short story for a mystery anthology with a musical theme. I also wrapped up edits on the Pearly Girls book 2, Murder Plays Second Fiddle.

Next up, I’ll be plotting the next Jules Keene Glamping Mystery. Jake, Jules, Bijou, and the gang are back for more mysteries (and mayhem).